Indigenous land management as primary health care: qualitative analysis from the Interplay research project in remote Australia.

Background: For Indigenous Australians, health transcends the absence of disease, and includes the health and wellbeing of their community and Country: their whole physical, cultural and spiritual environment. Stronger relationships with Country and greater involvement in cultural practices enhance the wellbeing of Indigenous Australians, and those in more remote regions have greater access to their Country and higher levels of wellbeing. However this does not translate into improvements in clinical indicators, and Indigenous Australians in more remote regions suffer higher levels of morbidity and mortality than Indigenous people in non-remote areas, and other Australians.

Australian Indigenous Land Management, Ecological Knowledge and Languages for Conservation.

Many Indigenous Australians hold cultural, ecological and language knowledge, but common representations of Indigenous Australians focus on social disadvantage and poor comparisons with other Australians in education, employment and health. Indigenous Land Management works with Indigenous people's cultural, ecological and language expertise, employing Indigenous people in activities contributing to biodiversity conservation. The Interplay research surveyed 841 Indigenous people in remote communities.

Injury prevention through employment as a priority for wellbeing among Aboriginal people in remote Australia.

Issue Addressed: Injuries lead to more hospitalisations and lost years of healthy life for Aboriginal people than any other cause. However, they are often overlooked in discussion of relieving Aboriginal disadvantage.

Methods: Four Aboriginal communities with diverse geography, culture and service arrangements participated in the Interplay Wellbeing project.

Interplay wellbeing framework: a collaborative methodology 'bringing together stories and numbers' to quantify Aboriginal cultural values in remote Australia.

Background: Wellbeing has been difficult to understand, measure and strengthen for Aboriginal people in remote Australia. Part of the challenge has been genuinely involving community members and incorporating their values and priorities into assessment and policy. Taking a 'shared space' collaborative approach between remote Aboriginal communities, governments and scientists, we merged Aboriginal knowledge with western science - by bringing together stories and numbers.